1) What's one song of yours you expected would get a laugh but fell flat?

It's not the song itself, but other factors that came into play. The first time I ever performed at a filk convention was in the one-shots at the second-to-last Bayfilk. The song I did, the parody "Nuclear Winter Wonderland," is normally a laugh-getter (and still gets 'em), but half of what makes it work is the delivery. I freaked out being on a stage where I could see the audience (I was used to not seeing the audience), and my fear came through and combined with the lyrics. The end result sounded like something more intended to scare the audience.

I didn't remember "California Love Song" getting laughs the first time I did it, but it was during the one-shots on the last day of Consonance. People were very tired, and very tired people often think "Hey, that's funny," but they don't have enough energy to show it. Later on most of the people in the room told me the song was "hysterically funny." Go figure.

The last case of that I remember is doing the rough cut of the full-up version of "I Lost My Baby on the Information Highway" at the UK filk con. When I did it to a room full of really fatigued people at Consonance during the one-shots the room livened up; even people who normally couldn't stand my stuff were doubling over and laughing out loud. At the UK con the audience was dead-silent and motionless. Afterwards I asked someone why. "We've already heard it. Scott Snyder does it every year."

My reply: "But it's my song!" The poor person looked puzzled.

2) What made you decide to go into radio?

I fell in love with broadcasting and broadcast journalism as a child. I used to pretend to be a DJ, "talking up" my 45s. Later on I interned in the production department at NJ Public TV (now New Jersey Networks) while in my senior year of high school. The first time I saw a newsroom I was hooked. The production part was pretty cool, too, but I felt the other stuff used my skills better. At the advice of many of the folks at NJPTV, when I went to college I immediately joined the school radio station. I took to radio like a duck to water -- more like a fish to water. I discovered it was in my blood. I don't know how else to explain it, but there's something about the immediateness and the mystery of radio (let's face it -- half the fun is you don't have a visual of what's going on) that grabs me. I'd love to do TV too, but I doubt I'll ever have the "right look" to get them to let me on for anything other than laughs.

3) You've lived on the east coast and the west coast. What's the best thing about each?

East coast: New York City (BROADWAY!!!), some of the foods you can only get back east (diet Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer, really good bagels, NoCal diet sodas, east-coast pizza, Maryland crabs, blue claw crabs, Atlantic salmon, east coast lobster, some of the varieties of clams and oysters), diners, Greek food, Polish food, flat beaches with swimmable-temperature water

West coast: The weather (at least in the part I'm in), the diversity of people and cultures, really fresh artichokes, lots of varieties of Chinese, Indian, and Mexican cuisines, dungeness crab, cheap electronics (in this part), Los Angeles

4) What's one thing you learned as a child that's served you well through the years?

To quote Mr. Hartman, the math teacher I had for three of my four years of high school, "Computers are stupid machines. They can only do what people can teach them to do." You have no idea how it wigs some folks out to see someone like me walk up to a computer, totally undaunted, and fearlessly start using it.